4 Face Charges In Alleged Drug Ring

A Lake County grand jury on Wednesday indicted a Highland Park lawyer and three other men on charges that they conspired to operate a drug ring out of a Waukegan bar next door to an elementary school.

Lawyer Gary Tucker was indicted on charges that he was part of a drug conspiracy, that he asked witnesses in drug trials to lie on the stand and that he obstructed justice.

Tucker, who has an office at 200 N. LaSalle St., Chicago, represented several men who were charged in a 1994 drug sting targeting La Esquina bar in Waukegan, according to court records.

In September, Waukegan officials closed the bar, at Belvidere Road and West Street, next to Cooke Magnet School.

Lake County Assistant State's Atty. George Strickland alleged that Tucker coerced witnesses in the drug trials to lie on the stand and that Tucker destroyed evidence to protect the alleged drug operation run out of La Esquina.

Tucker did not deal drugs but allegedly aided the operation, Strickland said.

"All four men were responsible for the delivery of kilos of cocaine, which were of course broken down and sold inside and outside" the bar, Strickland alleged. "In one way or another, they are all criminally accountable for the actions of the drug ring."

The alleged ring operated from January 1994 until the bar closed last month, Strickland said. Officials were unable to estimate how much cocaine was sold there.

Luis Arroyo remained a fugitive Wednesday after he left Waukegan during his June trial on drug-dealing charges stemming from the La Esquina bust, Strickland said. He was convicted in his absence. Luis Arroyo also faces charges that he asked witnesses to lie on the stand and that he violated his bond.

Jerry Arroyo failed to appear for a pretrial hearing on drug-dealing charges, Strickland said. He said that prosecutors at that hearing were planning to ask the judge to increase Jerry Arroyo's bond. Jerry Arroyo has remained a fugitive since.

He faces additional charges of money laundering, drug dealing, drug possession and bond violation, according to the indictment.